Vladimir Moss

24. SAINTS BOTOLPH, ABBOT, AND ADOLPH, BISHOP, OF IKANHOE

Our holy Fathers Botolph and Adolph were born of noble parents early in the seventh century. They were taught the Christian Faith in England, but went across the sea to France to learn more. In France they received the monastic tonsure and a thorough education in the monastic life.

According to John of Tynemouth, Adolph was then raised to the episcopate in Maastricht in Holland, where he led a holy life in all respects. But in about 654 Botolph returned to England. Through the intercession of two sisters of King Ethelmund of East Anglia, who were living in the same French monastery, he was granted a certain uncultivated place called Ikanhoe, on which to build a monastery, by King Anna of the East Angles.

«Now that region,» writes John of Tynemouth, «was as much forsaken by man as it was possessed by demons, whose fantastic illusion by the coming of the holy man was to be immediately put to flight and the pious conversation of the faithful substituted in its place, so that where up to that time the deceit of the devil had abounded, the grace of our beneficent founder should more abound. Upon the entry therefore of the blessed Botolph, the blackest smoke arises, and the enemy, knowing that his own flight was at hand, cries out with horrid clamour, saying, "This place which we have inhabited for a long time, we thought to inhabit for ever. Why, O Botolph! most cruel stranger, dost thou violently drive us from these seats? In nothing have we offended thee, in nothing have we disturbed your right. What do you seek in our expulsion? What do you wish to establish in this region of ours? And after being driven out of every corner of the world, do you expel us wretched even out of this solitude?» But the blessed Botolph, having made the sign of the Cross, put all his enemies to flight.»

St. Botolph proceeded to build a model community of monks at Ikanhoe (present- day Iken in Suffolk), being himself distinguished by many spiritual gifts, including prophecy. In 670 St. Ceolfrid, Abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow, visited him, and was impressed by what he saw. St. Botulph was also invited to take charge of the new monastery at Much Wenlock in Shropshire.

At length the saint died after a long illness in June, 680, and many miracles were wrought at his tomb.

In 869 St. Botolph's monastery was destroyed by the Danes. However, in about 972, at the command of St. Aethelwold, bishop of Winchester, a band of monks led by a certain Ulfketyl came to the saint's tomb, collected the precious relics, wrapped them in fine linen, and tried to carry them away on their shoulders. However, writes John of Tynemouth, «they were fixed with so great a weight, that by no effort can they move a step. Besides the cloisters of the altar resound with a loud noise, as if to intimate that their work was unfinished. They are stupefied with amazement; but at last by the teachings of God's grace, the monk aforesaid recollects the things he has heard, that the blessed Adolph the Bishop was buried with his brother, and having raised the body out of the earth, they carried it with them to Saint Aethelwold rejoicing.»

According to Abbot Folcard of Thorney, who wrote his life in the early 11th century, the reopened tomb gave forth a «miraculous aroma» for fifteen days, and the remains of Botolph could not be removed without those of his brother Adolph.

St. Aethelwold then placed the head of St. Botolph in the monastery of Ely, part of the rest of the body together with the body of St. Adolph in the monastery of Thorney, and the rest in his own monastery at Winchester.

According to one source, the church at Burgh, near Woodbridge, contained his relics for a time, before King Canute ordered their removal to the monastery at Bury St. Edmund's which he founded in 1020.

Later, St. Edward the Confessor translated part of the body of St. Botolph to St. Peter's, Westminster.

64 ancient churches were dedicated to Botolph, sixteen of them in Norfolk and three in the city of London. He was also widely venerated in Denmark, and was regarded as one of the patron saints of travellers including an association with bridges.

The church at Ikanoe structurally dates from the 11th century, but with evidence of an earlier building in close association, and contains part of a large stone cross­shaft which archaeologists believe may have originally been placed on the site of St. Botolph's monastery in the 10th century, following the removal of his relics by St. Aethelwold in 970.

Saints Botolph and Adolph are commemorated on June 17.

Holy Fathers Botolph and Adolph, pray to God for us!

(Sources: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; «Saint Botolph of Boston», compiled by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, in The True Vine, vol. 3, no. 4, 1992; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Clarendon, 1978, pp. 4, 51–52; Simeon of Durham, History of the Church of Durham; Fr. Elias Trefor-Jones, «St. Botwulf (Botolph) of Icanhoe», Orthodox News, vol. 18, no. 3, Spring, 2005, p. 4; «St. Botulph's Church, Iken»)

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